Korean, Japanese and Colombian firms

DIMENSIONS	KOREA	JAPAN	COLOMBIA
Strategic goals	Emphasis on market share and profit maximization. Still, they place more emphasis on market share than Japanese firms.	Emphasis on market share.	In small Colombian firms, process is more important than strategy. But large firms focus on getting a big share of the market.
Environment analysis	Firms are active in monitoring their rivals. They seem to be concerned more about oligopolistic rivals than about threats of substitute goods.	Firms are active in monitoring their rivals and suppliers of substitute goods.	Most of Colombian firms are not active in monitoring their rivals; they focus mostly in selling their products, instead of adding value and differentiating from its competitors.
Technology Development and manufacturing	Long term technology development and economies of scale are very important production goals.	Long term technology development and economies of scale are very important production goals. Japanese firms emphasize more in flexible manufacturing than Korean.	Economies of scale are important in large firms, but hand manufacturing and human capital are more relevant.
Supplier relationship	Korean firms tend to cooperate with suppliers in new-product development and develop long-term relationships.	Japanese Korean firms tend to cooperate with suppliers in new-product development and develop long-term relationships.	Colombian firms are working on an internal integration with their clients and suppliers, in order to develop a long-term relationship with them.
Closeness with customers	Korean firms Exchange information with customers less than Japanese firms do, but highly internationalized firms are becoming as close to their customers as their Japanese counterparts do.	Japanese firms emphasize information exchange with customers more than Korean firms do.	Colombian firms tend to become close to the customers through information sharing systems, but it is a tendency, and it will become more developed in the long run.
Marketing	Large firms emphasize the development of corporate brand less than Japanese firms. But highly internationalized firms do it as much as their Japanese counterparts.	Very large firms emphasize the development of corporate brand or trademark more than large Korean firms.	Colombian firms appear to pursue different degrees of standardization with respect to different dimensions of their international marketing strategy.
Human Resource Management	Employees are considered less important in management and are less willing to reflect employees’ opinions and suggestions in management.	Information sharing within the organization and corporate values.	Most of Colombian firms still consider communication with employees less important within the organization.
International orientation	Large and internationalized firms tend to conduct customer analysis on a global basis and are involved in direct international marketing.	Japanese firms are also involved in direct international marketing and a global basis to conduct customer analysis.	Large Colombian firms and internationalized firms practice international marketing and conduct customer analysis on a global basis too.